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General discussion

Windows 7 doesn't recognize printer

Jun 6, 2010 12:07PM PDT

I recently upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. My computer no longer recognizes my printer (HP 2210xi all-in-one). I would also like to connect this printer to my Airport Extreme router so that I can print "wirelessly". As you can imagine, this doesn't work either, I assume because my laptop needs to have the 2210 printer added before it can be recognized wirelessly. All links I have seen so far go to a page that says Windows 7 will recognize the printer automatically. Thank you for any advice you can give.

Discussion is locked

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Go to HP
Jun 6, 2010 4:02PM PDT
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Here is the US link...
Jun 7, 2010 3:29AM PDT
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Still no luck
Aug 8, 2010 11:40AM PDT

The link just told me to connect to the printer via USB and Windows 7 would find/download the driver. This doesn't work. Windows 7 does not recognize my printer.

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Windows Update
Aug 8, 2010 11:32PM PDT

Update Windows 7 with your printer plugged in, make sure you also check the "optional updates"

this should install the correct drivers for your printer

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YEAH! It works
Aug 11, 2010 12:54PM PDT

I knew my Windows updates were pretty current, so I was skeptical. But I plugged my HP Printer in (my laptop saw it as a removable disk). I selected the Silverlight update (which I definitely didn't need, but I figured any update might work). The update applied, but the printer still looked like a removable disk. So, I unplugged my HP printer and plugged in my Epson Stylus just for kicks. It automatically searched for a driver for the Epson & downloaded fine. So, I plugged the HP printer back in and it found that driver as well! So, for anyone else having this problem: plug in your printer, apply any Windows update (my automatic updates were already on, so I turned them off, saved, then turned them back on), unplug your printer and plug it back in again.

Tomorrow I will try plugging my HP printer into the USB port on my Airport Extreme to see if I can turn it into a wireless printer. Wish me luck! Thanks for all the advice & help!!!